Amidst the rush of the busy Seattle streets sits the Paramount theater, majestic and beautiful in both architecture and furnishings, and home to some of the best musical acts that come to town. On the first Monday of autumn, the place was packed to almost capacity for the famous British trio, the xx, and their opening acts of Zola Jesus and Warpaint.
Both Zola Jesus and Warpaint were decent, nothing altogether too memorable or crowd pleasing. There was a lot of conversation over their sets and the lobby was still generally packed until the end of Warpaint’s set, after which a black curtain descended to shroud the stage in secrecy. Projected upon it was the infamous white X that the xx have used as a signature for their first album and related media. A live DJ spun some tracks while the seats filled and the excitement was indeed apparent.
Seeing the xx is almost like listening to the album on vinyl- incredibly amazing, but at the same time, mildly simplistic. It’s the same songs off their album (since they only have the one) and there is only three of them. But honestly, what held the audience captivated, and has the previous four times they have played Seattle in the recent year, is their live show. It’s the little things that are different, covers, and the general atmosphere of hearing their incredibly beautiful music and art fill a room with amazing acoustics like the Paramount.
After dropping the curtain, the trio started with their most obvious choice, “Intro” before rushing into their first hit single, “Crystalised.” Nothing was really different from their recorded tracks but something about purely being in the same room with these musicians that were now wrapped in fog and mystery from numerous fog machines set in the wings was just a sense of belonging to something a little bit bigger than any one person alone. Just a hair above Jamie Smith’s seductive vocals was the general song of the crowd- an entire theater singing along with the words, passion almost palpable on the air. Continuing on with the set, “Heart Skipped A Beat” made everyone in the audience grin and chime in before “Basic Space” set the standard for the night. Clearly, the xx were just getting warmed up.
Covers are usually overdone and cliché, but for these British heartthrobs, cliché wasn’t enough. Covering Womack and Womack’s “Tear Drops” continued the night with a bang- a welcome surprise from the standard fare of the night. It was very xx in the execution, just a little grittier and generally heavier than the original, but in general it still sang very true to the band’s style. Launching into “VCR” and then smoothly playing into “Islands,” “Night time,” and “Infinity,” adding little extras to the tracks such as extended outros and intros to make the live experience just a little more special.
For an encore, “Stars” finished out the evening on a bittersweet note, with Oliver Sim announcing “We’ve been on tour for over two years. It’s probably going to be awhile before we come back to Seattle.” It definitely was not a show to miss, even with the almost disappointing news at the end, which left most fans thoroughly satisfied and hopefully satiated until they return to the States. It did leave a sense of longing behind, for just a little bit more of the xx magic- and hopefully a new album soon.
Check out the bands at the following links:
And more pictures from the night HERE!
